Murrells Inlet · Downsizing
Downsizing Your Murrells Inlet Home
Selling the home you've outgrown, timed around the smaller one you're moving into, not rushed and not carrying two mortgages.
A Quick Note
This page is general information, not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Rules and timelines change and your numbers are your own, so please confirm the details with your attorney, your tax professional, and your lender. I am a real estate professional, and my part is the sale and the search.
Plan My Murrells Inlet Downsize
Downsizing Your Murrells Inlet Home, Net First
Downsizing your Murrells Inlet home starts with the number you keep. South Carolina's deed recording fee is $1.85 per $500 of value, paid by the seller, so a $475,000 sale carries $1,757.50, along with your payoff and other closing costs. Local to Coastal Realty builds that net sheet first, then we set the order of the sale and the move.
Your Buyer's Math Depends on the County
Because Murrells Inlet sits in Horry and Georgetown counties, your buyer's tax bill depends on which side your house is on. For a buyer who will live in it, the Georgetown side's tax district 41 comes to about 128.8 mills on 4 percent at tax year 2025 rates, and the Horry side's 2026 levies to at least about 90.1 mills before waste management or other district levies. I put the right figure in front of every buyer so the conversation stays on your house. If you have rented the house, have the booking history and your county rental tax filings ready.
Sell First, Buy First, and Getting the House Ready
Sell first and take your time on the next place, negotiate a later possession date so you stay a few weeks after closing, make your next purchase depend on this sale, or buy first if your numbers allow. If you stay in South Carolina, apply for the 4 percent legal residence rate on the new home before the first penalty date for that tax year. A long-held house often has plenty of equity and some finishes that have not changed, and near the marsh buyers ask about the flood zone, elevation, docks, and insurance first. We decide together what is worth fixing. Then sort what goes: measure the new place, keep, sell or donate, or store for later. See what your Murrells Inlet home is worth.
Disclosure, the Launch, and the Tax on the Profit
South Carolina's disclosure statement is due before you and the buyer sign the contract, and the closing runs under attorney supervision. Your house gets the full launch: professional photos, drone photography, a video walkthrough, a property website, and a targeted paid social campaign. The IRS lets you exclude up to $250,000 of gain on your main home, or $500,000 on a joint return, if you owned and lived in it for two of the five years before the sale, with a separate rule for sales within two years of a spouse's death. Then the search, covered in downsizing to a smaller home in Murrells Inlet. Call me.
Sources
The rules and figures above come from these sources, checked in October 2026. Your tax professional and attorney have the final word.
- South Carolina Code, Title 12, Chapter 24, deed recording fee
- Georgetown County Auditor, millage rates, tax year 2025
- Horry County Auditor, 2026 tax levies
- South Carolina Code, Title 12, Chapter 43, Section 12-43-220, assessment ratios
- South Carolina Code, Title 27, Chapter 50, Residential Property Condition Disclosure Act
- IRS Publication 523, Selling Your Home
Frequently Asked Questions
What comes off the top when I sell in Murrells Inlet?
Among your closing costs, South Carolina's deed recording fee of $1.85 per $500 of value, $1,757.50 on a $475,000 sale.
Will buyers ask which county my house is in?
Usually. Murrells Inlet sits in Horry and Georgetown counties, and the buyer's tax bill depends on the side.
Can you help me downsize to North Carolina?
Yes. I am licensed in North Carolina and South Carolina and run both sides.
Murrells Inlet
What downsizing looks like in Murrells Inlet
The Seafood Capital of South Carolina, a half-mile boardwalk over the marsh, and Brookgreen Gardens and Huntington Beach State Park nearby.
Murrells Inlet is known as the Seafood Capital of South Carolina. The MarshWalk is a half-mile wooden boardwalk over a saltwater estuary, lined with seafood restaurants and known for live music.
Brookgreen Gardens holds the largest collection of American figurative sculpture displayed outdoors anywhere in the world, and Huntington Beach State Park is home to Atalaya, the Moorish-style winter home of Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington.
The method
How we do it in Murrells Inlet
Downsizing: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Local to Coastal Realty?